USOC `hush' fund disputed

February 20, 2003|By Philip Hersh, Tribune Olympic sports reporter.

The attorney for former U.S. Olympic Committee marketing chief Toby Wong has written Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell to protest "untrue allegations and rumors" the senator made public at a commerce committee hearing.

"We believe Ms. Wong should have the right to return to a corporate marketing environment without having her name, professional reputation and personal integrity damaged by rumor, innuendo and non-truths," Houston attorney Philip Hilder said in a Wednesday letter to Campbell (R-Colo.).

Wong resigned Feb. 10 after barely 10 months in the job, citing a desire to return to corporate marketing. She was given a severance package in the low six figures.

At last Thursday's hearing on the USOC, Campbell asked whether Wong had received "hush money" because she was "about to file a sexual harassment suit against a top-level USOC official whose name I will not disclose."

Campbell's assertion was based on three phone calls his office had received from USOC employees.

But in his letter to Campbell, Hilder called the sexual harassment allegations untrue and disputed the characterization of the severance as hush money. He said it was a package of benefits negotiated before Wong began the USOC job.

"Ms. Wong did not personally experience sexual harassment at the USOC," Hilder wrote. "Ms. Wong has never asserted a claim for sexual harassment against the USOC or any of its officials."

Campbell responded by restating his questions.

"If Ms. Wong left the USOC under normal circumstances, why has she retained the high-priced Texas law firm that represented some of the Enron whistle-blowers?" the senator asked.